Last Vegas Review

07Jan

Howdy ladies and gents, time for another film review and now I’m gonna talk about Last Vegas. Now this was one of the last few films I wanted to watch on my 2013 calendar, only yo then find out it was being pushed into 2014 in the UK (bullshit!). I’d been hyped for the film since early 2013 and I liked the trailers so I’ve been waiting for a long time. Was it worth the wait? Read on and find out.

So the story of this film involves four childhood friends (Billy, Paddy, Sam and Archie), they’re now in their late 60’s and have gotten on with their lives. However when Billy decides to get married, the four reunite for a bachelor party in Las Vegas and what follows is a load of crazy scenarios with emotional results for the group.

I liked story here, it was funny, cute and entertaining. There’s dancing, alcohol and incredibly beautiful woman in the film throughout, it is a wonderful sight (mainly for the guys lol). The flashbacks were an introduction to the characters and throughout the film especially in Vegas you can see how deep the friendship is between the main four characters. But the film’s not all humour as there was a bit of substance as their was a bit of turmoil between Billy and Paddy which is hinted at in the trailer, but full explored in the film. This in addition to some of the issues for Sam and Archive leads to some dramatic and interesting conflicts that need to be overcome. The humour was kind of hit or miss and it didn’t help that al lot of the jokes were shown in the trailer. Also all there was a lot of jokes referring to the characters ages and while I’m not against it, it could be done in better ways. It seems to be a recurring theme in films these days to crack jokes about older people doing younger things but it does get a bit tiresome after a while. I feel like this film could have been a really good film if the direction and script were a little more sophisticated, as it stands the plot was good but with a bit more refinement it could have been a special film.

When it comes to the characters the cast are really the main element that makes this film work and stay above being below average. Michael Douglas as Billy is great, he is a very confident kind of guy who is also successful and loves his friends a lot, but has some person issues that make him vulnerable. Robert De Niro as Paddy is the next best person as his character has a lot of levels to him. Paddy is a no-nonsense kind of guy who has respect for Sam and Archie, but hates Billy because of an issue from the past and while he is a bit grumpy, you can understand why he’s like that because of his history. Morgan Freeman as Archie has to be my favourite of the four, while he doesn’t get as much screen time as Billy and Paddy, he’s charismatic, adventurous and cheeky, such a funny dude to be around. And Kevin Kline as Sam is cool too, Kline like Morgan doesn’t as much screen time, but when he’s on-screen he’s always in such funny and awkward situations. Together Douglas, De Niro, Morgan and Kline have great screen chemistry and you really believe that they’ve been friends for years. Also Mary Steenburgen as Diana is beautiful, cute and a delightful lady who sings and has some nice screen time with some of the main group. And the last two people I wanted to mention were Jerry Ferrara as Todd and Romany Malco as Lonnie who were very entertaining.

In conclusion Last Vegas is fun little film with a lot of unexpected heart to it, while the film suffers from some script and dialogue issues, the performances from the four main cast members makes up for it. Some may right it off as a some Hangover rip-off with old guys, but this film is easily better than the last two sequels in that series. It wasn’t as good as I hoped but there was a few story details that put it above the most comedies I’ve seen in the cinema.

So have you seen Last Vegas and if so what are your thoughts on it? Leave your comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review! 🙂